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From
your friends at ATCMonitor.com. © 2006 - Reproduction without permission
is prohibited.
The United
States National Airspace System is divided into 20 different regions controlled
by 20 enroute air traffic control centers.
Each ARTCC (air route traffic control center) is responsible for the
safe, and expeditious flow of anything that flies through it’s airspace.
ARTCC’s are separated into between 21 and 65 sectors both horizontally
and vertically. These sectors are
each equipped with one radar scope, one assistant controller position and manned
by between 1 to 3 air traffic controllers depending on the complexity and volume
at an given time in that sector. Generally
5-8 sectors comprise what is called an “area of specialization”.
Up to 9 “areas” make up each ARTCC.
A particular controller is certified to work all sectors in any one area. Normally, controllers do not work sectors in other areas
without extensive retraining.
An ARTCC works
air traffic that is enroute between departure point and destination airport.
Air Traffic Control Towers control aircraft normally within a very small
area around the airport they are located on.
For instance, the Atlanta Air Traffic Control Tower, (contrary to what
Hollywood wants you to think), controls aircraft from the gate to the end of the
departure runway. After
the aircraft's wheels are up, it is switched over to a departure (or approach)
controller. And then once aircraft get 40 nautical miles from the
airport, they are "handed off” to the Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control
Center. The nationwide network of
enroute centers then handles the aircraft in all phases of flight until they get
within 40 nautical miles of their intended destination airport (if that airport
is served by an air traffic control tower).
If the destination airport has no operational tower, then the enroute
center controls the aircraft during final approach and landing.
The controller working the LOGEN sector that we are monitoring must separate hundreds of Macey
Arrivals and East departures from the thousands of General Aviation, Military
and Air Carrier traffic that is transitioning through the Atlanta area each day.
All of these Macey arrivals have to be descended from their
cruise altitude (usually 31,000 to 41,000 feet) down to 13,000 or 14,000 feet by
the time they cross a point shortly after the Macey intersection.
These aircraft also have to be properly spaced apart in a single file
line so that there can be an orderly feed into the Atlanta approach control
arrival gate. There are usually dozens of obstacles to this descent and lining up of these
aircraft. There are many
overflights all over the Macey arrival.
The controllers have to step down,
vector, slow down, speed up, and basically pray that the arrivals don't get too close to any of
the overflights while all the time keeping in
mind to separate the arrivals from each other too!
Enroute centers are not very exciting to the press or Hollywood.
Atlanta center is located in a very non-descript small town
(Hampton, GA). Hampton is much more
famous for the Atlanta Motor Speedway than it is for having the busiest, most
complicated air traffic control facility in the world.
Most folks don’t even know that the center is there.
The press always shows up at the Air Traffic Control
Tower at the airport whenever there is an ATC story in the news.
You see, it is much more visually satisfying to the public to see the
controllers actually looking at the airplanes than it is to see a dark row of
radar scopes in a building with no windows and no proximity to any airport.
The public is basically totally unaware of what a center is.
Top ten responses
controllers hear from people at a party after you tell them that you are an air
Traffic Controller in Hampton, GA:
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I didn’t even know that
there was an airport in Hampton
-
Where’s Hampton?
-
What radio station do you work
for? (air traffic patrol-
traffic copter, big traffic jam on I-285, etc…)
-
Oh, you wave those little
orange wands at the airport, right?
-
Did you see that movie Pushing
Tin/ Summer Rental?
-
What airline do you work for?
-
Didn’t
you guys get fired in '81?
-
Do you fly for free?
-
Do you know my uncle, his name
is Jim and he’s a controller……..in New York!
-
Ooohhh!,
that’s stressful isn’t it?
Once
people take the time to understand the way that Air Traffic Control Centers
work, they usually are much more aware of what
might be causing the delays that they receive at airports.
To learn more about Air Traffic Control and how it works, click here.
To learn more about the Macey Arrival, click here.
To learn more about the FAA, click here.
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